Thursday, March 6, 2014

A fun result from 2011

I've been "obsessed" with R. Fedtschenkoana for quite a few years. In 2011, I crossed my mossy Dottie Louise - Fedtschenkoana seedling with pollen fromMidnight Blue. It has grown quite well and has finally set three buds. This morning, one of them opened. It isn't as deeply saturated a color as I had hoped, but the scent is heavier, sweeter, spicier than the DLFED 3 parent. The "linseed oil" scent from Fedtschenkoana is definitely there and persists long after the heavy, spicy, sweet elements evaporate. It retains the gorgeous silvery-turquoise blue foliage along with the linseed scent. This seedling is a bit more vigorous than the DLFED 3 seedling. The prickles are very similar to the seed parent's. I had hoped for quite a bit more color saturation, and fewer prickles. It is interesting it has lost the "mossing" on the peduncles and sepals. The prickles begin as very dense, hard bristles and prickles at the cane bases. They thin as you go up the canes and eventually become very long, gently hooked, very sharp weapons toward the upper ends. The very ends of the canes are virtually prickle free.